The Māori of New Zealand were considered to be be the most terrifying enemies the British ever encountered
u/AleksiB1 — 14 days ago
r/austronesian
▲ 191 r/austronesian
Traditional blades of some Austronesian ethnic groups
Aside from languages, there's also a huge amount of diversity among Austronesians when it comes to traditional blades, many of which serve multiple purposes.
Majority serves both utilitarian and combat roles, like the sansibar of Waray people and mandau of Dayaks. A few others have been elevated to ceremonial use, like the keris of Javanese and the kefilan of T'boli.
In the northernmost parts of Austronesian realm, open scabbards are the preferred design, like those of the Ifugao, Kalinga and Atayal while southwards towards the Malay Archipelago closed scabbards are preferred.
Wood is the primary material for scabbards, often from the local trees. In some blade cultures in Luzon, carabao leather is utilized instead. Ceremonial blades like Maranao gunong and sundang occasionally have heavily ornamented scabbards made of metal.
Wood is also the most common material for hilts, but carabao horn is preferred in some parts of Luzon. In Mindanao and Malay Archipelago, ivory was used occasionally. Like the scabbards, metal can also be used for ceremonial hilts. Unlike the rest of Austronesian hilts, Ifugao and Atayal knives feature socket hilts which are then often wrapped with rattan weavings.
u/anoulityon — 12 days ago
A Call for Investigation of Gule
A Call for Investigation of Gule
-
Raoul Zamponi (https://www.academia.edu/126721374):
>
This book presents the first systematic study of Gule, a dormant East African language isolate, offering a tentative grammatical sketch based on historical documentation collected by Brenda Z. Seligman. Readers will gain valuable insights into a previously unstudied language through systematic grammatical analysis and comparative linguistic examination of the available materials, including a previously unknown audio recording made in 1966 by Wendy R. James. The book delivers this through detailed documentation analysis, identification of areal linguistic phenomena shared with neighboring East African languages, and thorough vocabulary assessment that establishes Gule’s unique status among world languages.
>
However, when I examined the lists I decided that rather than having a "unique status", many Austronesian words were close matches:
Gu. dusuit ‘two’, Au. *duSa
Gu. if ‘hair, wool’, Au. *ipu- 'hair, feather' (no p in Gu., several other p / f matches below)
Gu. au 'dog', Au. *asu (maybe *aswu \ *wasu to explain w- in four Formosan languages)
Gu. tis ‘milk’, *titis 'drip, ooze', *titiq 'female breast; suck the breast' (related like *bandyo- > Old Irish bann(a)e ‘drop’, I. bainne ‘milk’)
Gu. si ‘to drink’, Au. *sip-sip, *sep-sep, *sedut 'sip, suck, drink' (and several other similar roots)
Gu. rus ‘rain’, Au. *rinis 'drizzle, drizzling rain', *rins-rins ? > Old Javanese 'riris soft rain', Balinese riris 'rain gently, drizzle' (likely rel. rin & ren *rintik 'steady dripping, as of sweat or drizzling rain', *rendeŋ 'constant rain, a rainy day, rainy season')
Gu. gŭdĭ-n \ gadˤi-n ‘your head’, Au. *quluh ‘head’
Gu. ki, Au. *kuCux ‘louse’ (likely < *ku-, *kuman 'itch mite, chicken louse')
Gu. tufena 'dust', Au. *tapuŋ 'dust, rice flour' (Manobo tapuŋ 'any fine powdery substance; to brush the dust off something'), *tapuk 'dust, dust in the air; knock the dust off something'
Gu. gără̄wáig, Au. *RuqaNay 'man' (likely < *qaRuNway to explain irreg. pl. gămoi)
Gu. ɟok ‘God’, Au. *qiaŋ 'ancestor, deity, divinity'
Gu. wadus ‘girl’, *wati-qazi 'unmarried'?, Au. *wati 'husband or wife; to marry', *qazi 'no, not'
Gu. fŭ̄m, Au. *pijiko \ *pisiko 'flesh, meat, muscle' (if < *pims- to explain voice vs. un-)
Gu. adatˤwa ‘tongue’, Au. *dilaq 'tongue; to lick', *dilap \ *dilat 'to lick, stick out the tongue' (variation might be < *adilat-qwa if tqw > tˤw, or similar; any rel. Nilotic *ŋaljɛp ‘tongue’ ?)
Gu. adon ‘path, road’, Au. *zalan
-
There were also several that differed in meaning, but seem more or less likely cognates:
Gu. kĕlu 'star', Au. *kelap 'shine, sparkle, twinkle'
Gu. kas, ‘fire’, Au. *kasu 'smoke'
Gu. tos ‘to kill’, Au. *tusuk 'pierce' ( > Toba Batak ma-nusuk 'to stab, kill')
Gu. wɔr \ wɔd \ wat ‘tree; (piece of) wood; stick’ < *wart ?, Au. *wakaR 'root' (since likely rel. *wakir, *wakat 'root', likely < *wakart or *wakiRt (depending on nature of *R))
Gu. taʔ ‘sun’, Au. *taqo 'cook in earth oven'
Gu. of ‘stone’, Au. *oro 'mtn.' (if < *ofro, etc.)
Gu. abū-n 'your belly, abdomen', Au. *kambu 'belly, stomach, abdomen, womb, intestines'
-
I ask that people with more knowledge of each group look into this further. For more notes:
Many Proto-Austronesian words for body parts end in -ŋ, & the cited Gu. words with -n 'your _' might show that the cause is an affix becoming part of the stem.
In Gu. gără̄wáig, Au. *RuqaNay 'man' (likely < *qaRuNway to explain irreg. pl. gămoi), the rec. also might fit the names of people from New Guinea, like Kuruwai, Kumbai \ Kombai, etc. I mention this because I noticed a similar relation between Au. & some languages there.
u/stlatos — 11 days ago
▲ 12 r/austronesian
The archaeological evidence for ancient Polynesian contact with Australia: a Norfolk Island adze on coastal NSW & unusual east coast Aboriginal fishhook traditions from c. 1200 CE
Thought I'd make a post about this since it seems to be very little known.
In 1928 a basalt adze of Polynesian appearance was found in an Aboriginal midden at Dark Point on the coast of NSW, Australia. A study published in Australian Archaeology in 2014 determined that the basalt certainly came from Norfolk Island, which Polynesians inhabited sometime around 1300-1500 CE before abandoning.
The paper also suggests that a one-piece shell fishhook design used by inexplicably geographically distant Aboriginal populations along the east coast since roughly 1200-1300 CE could be another indication of contact.
Some excerpts from the paper:
>The adze was described and published by Thorpe (1929), who noted formal similarities to adzes collected on Norfolk Island, and from Polynesia more generally. However, petrological examination [...] was inconclusive as to its source (Thorpe 1929:126).
>Thorpe (1929) originally argued that European period deposition, whether by chance or deliberate discard, was unlikely, requiring a string of improbable events in an area he described as wild and not occupied by Europeans. However, if looking for a European period deposition, probably the simplest explanation is that it was picked up and brought back to Dark Point by one of the unknown number of Aboriginal people who visited Norfolk Island after 1788 (Karskens 2013:110; Specht 1984:29).
>Pre-European visitation of Aboriginal people to Norfolk Island is unlikely, as there are currently no records of seafaring technology available to travel such a distance (Bowdler 1996; Davidson 1935; cf. recent discussion in Balme 2013:71), but absence of evidence does not mandate absence. [...] Other more elaborate scenarios could be developed, but become increasingly improbable.
>The alternative explanation is an original Polynesian deposition. The short-lived Polynesian settlement of Norfolk Island occurred about 1300 CE (800–600 years ago) (Anderson and White 2001), at a time when there was a good deal of Polynesian voyaging in much of the Pacific (Anderson 2003), so it is not inconceivable that a canoe equipped with Polynesian material culture arrived either at Dark Point or Broughton Island. Of its possible cargo, only two kinds of material are likely to survive to the present: basalt and obsidian. In the only known Polynesian archaeological site on Norfolk Island, Emily Bay, 3178 basalt flakes were excavated compared with 26 pieces of obsidian (Turner et al. 2001), so the absence of obsidian from any voyage which landed at Dark Point should not surprise us. We can speculate about the several possible fates of the voyagers. A date of around 1300 CE is also about the most recent that can be expected for such an event, since there is reason to believe that long-distance Polynesian voyaging was severely curtailed or ceased about this time (Finney 1997:46–51), although accidental drift voyages could have occurred at any time.
>Considering these scenarios, we suggest that a Polynesian deposition is the more likely explanation for the presence of the adze, since it requires no intermediary events, but this is an Occam's Razor solution and history has a way of confounding these.
>From the Australian side, in what we can argue is further possible confirmation of direct contact, one-piece shell fishhooks began to be made along the NSW coast some 800–900 years ago (Attenbrow et al. 1998) (or 700–500 years ago; see Walters 1988). The archaeological distribution of this type of hook – northern Queensland, south to Keppel Islands, and along the NSW coast, from Port Stephens south, with a major gap between – has caused considerable discussion.
>As with the occurrence of the Dark Point adze, we argue that the simpler explanation – a Polynesian stimulus for the southern series at least, whatever the reason for its wider adoption – is the more economical.
>[...] we can solve only part of the Dark Point adze mystery. We can be certain it came from Norfolk Island, but, short of an unexpected historical record or further, less ambiguous archaeological data, its appearance on the midden remains unexplained.
u/langisii — 13 days ago
▲ 3 r/austronesian
Emperor Topa Inca Yupanqui claimed to have sailed west from South America and discovered a land filled with gold and dark-skinned natives. Did the Inca Empire discover Australia?
Welcome back to Historical Mysteries: an exploration into strange occurrences, phenomena and disappearances in the historical record. For more entries in the series, please scroll to the bottom.
The Inca Empire ruled western South America from 1438 to 1533, spanning an expansive mountainous region and presiding over a vibrant culture that would come to a violent end with the arrival of Francisco Pizzaro and his conquistadores. The invasion of the Spanish was particularly shocking to the Inca because before this, they had never before interacted with a group of people not native to the Americas.
Right?
... right?
As it turns out, there are elements within Inca history and lore that call into question whether they were really as isolated as believed. There is an intriguing story documented by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, a Spanish author and adventurer who is famous for carefully cataloguing Inca history and culture. de Gamboa was also notable for being unusually respectful to Inca culture unlike other Spainards who treated native culture as either primitive nonsense or heretical. de Gamboa, in contrast, took great care to consult with native Inca and present their stories as accurately as possible in his treatises. In his work The History of the Incas, he mentions the following story about Emperor Topa Inca Yupanqui who ruled from 1471-1493.
>…there arrived at Tumbez some merchants who had come by sea from the west, navigating in balsas with sails. They gave information of the land whence they came, which consisted of some islands called Avachumbi and Ninachumbi, where there were many people and much gold. Tupac Inca was a man of lofty and ambitious ideas, and was not satisfied with the regions he had already conquered. So he determined to challenge a happy fortune, and see if it would favour him by sea.…
>The Inca, having this certainty, determined to go there. He caused an immense number of balsas to be constructed, in which he embarked more than 20,000 chosen men.…
>Tupac Inca navigated and sailed on until he discovered the islands of Avachumbi and Ninachumbi, and returned, bringing back with him black people, gold, a chair of brass, and a skin and jaw bone of a horse. These trophies were preserved in the fortress of Cuzco until the Spaniards came. The duration of this expedition undertaken by Tupac Inca was nine months, others say a year, and, as he was so long absent, every one believed he was dead.
So to recap, some merchants arrived from a far off land in the west (wait... west? What's west of South America?) and said they were from two large islands. Yupanqui then built a massive navy and 20,000 soldiers and embarked on a journey to find this land, returning almost a year later with "black people", gold, and artifacts including furniture and animal bones.
Well, this is a strange story, and has inspired fierce debate within the community of historians who study the Inca. If there is truth to the story, it would completely turn our entire understanding of South American empires on its head because it would prove that they actually were traveling the world and interacting with other cultures before the Spanish arrived. There are three theories about what exactly happened here:
Theory #1: The story is completely made up. This is the prevailing theory among academics. The story narrated by de Gamboa is quite literally the only early source that we have about the supposed voyage. And while this might be explained by the fact that Inca themselves kept no written records, the fact remains that the field of academic history operates on evidence. There is zero evidence of an Inca voyage having taken place anywhere. There are zero pieces of Inca art suggesting knowledge of other continents, zero artifacts found in Inca tombs that could have come from overseas, and zero Inca artifacts found anywhere in the Pacific. Furthermore, the idea of the Inca assembling a large navy to travel across the Pacific (and succeeding) is hard to believe as they were not a seafaring empire.
Theory #2: The Incas discovered Easter Island or the Galapagos Islands. There are some historians who insist that some kind of journey took place, such as the academic José Antonio del Busto Duthurburu. Among supporters of the theory that a voyage actually happened, the Easter and Galapagos Islands usually are mentioned the most. Easter Island interestingly has an old legend about a group of long-eared outsiders called the Hanau epe who arrived on the islands and immediately got into conflict with the natives, terrorizing them and attempting to enslave them before being driven out. There are problems with the Easter/Galapagos island theory, however. For starters, neither is known as a natural repository of gold, directly contradicting the story that Yupanqui brought large sums of gold back with him. It would be a stretch to say the natives of Easter Island are "black"; they are Polynesian which would place their complexion pretty close to the Inca themselves. And the Galapagos doesn't have a native human population in the first place. Finally, no Inca artifacts or signs of Inca invasion have been found on either island.
Theory #3: The Incas discovered Australia and/or New Zealand. This is perhaps the spiciest of the theories, though it is also the least talked about. There are some factors in support of this theory. Australia and NZ are directly west of South America and one can imagine a large navy blindly hitting them while traveling west, much more so than we can imagine the Incas being incredibly lucky and finding Easter Island which is like a needle in a haystack. The natives of Australia are certainly quite dark skinned. And finally Australia is a large natural reservoir of gold. However, there are many factors opposing this theory. Firstly, no physical evidence has been found in South America or Australia indicating cross-cultural exchanges between them. Oceania is very far from South America to the tune of about 7,900 miles, so it is hard to imagine an Incan navy successfully making this voyage blindly.
Sources:
https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/630877
https://alchetron.com/Topa-Inca-Yupanqui
del Busto Duthurburu, José Antonio (2019). Túpac Yupanqui, descubridor de Oceanía. Nuku Hiva, Mangareva, Rapa Nui (in Spanish). Ediciones Lux.
https://issuu.com/futurepublishing/docs/ahb3970.issuu
More Historical Mysteries:
Dorothy Eady, the Egyptologist who claimed to be a reincarnated Egyptian princess
The Rock Apes of the Vietnam War
How did a Spanish guard in the 1500s find himself teleported from Manila to Mexico City?
Why did North Korea purge an entire Army corps in 1995?
Where is the location of the mythological Indian kingdom of Lanka?
Was Muhammad alive after his supposed death in Arabia?
u/AleksiB1 — 14 days ago